Access to Impact with Kikori

The well-being of teachers and students across America is in a state of crisis. We are all aware of the alarming trends facing American students and teachers today because we are experiencing them first-hand in our homes, in our conversations with friends, and in our own hearts. Due to screens and societal pressures, youth were already presenting increased levels of anxiety and depression (1, 2, 3X) prior to the pandemic and national unrest rocked our country.  Now, these events have led to some of the highest rates of isolation, loneliness, fear and suicide attempts (3) that we have ever seen.  These issues have also contributed to the 8 million chronic student absences annually (4), an issue that has been deemed one of the most critical issues facing schools today.   

Teachers in today’s society have also never been so challenged, ill-equipped, and undervalued. According to a study by the American Educational Research Journal, 62% of teachers left the school where they were working within three years (5), and another survey revealed that 61 percent of educators feel stressed “often” or “always” at work (6). Starting in March, when the global pandemic forced widespread school closures, these conditions immediately worsened as teachers were required to immediately master new technology, described by one middle school educator as “four times the work for a hundred times less joy.”(8) For many teachers, the tipping point has been the heartbreak of watching their students experience issues that they do not have the time, training or resources to support. The rate of teacher turnover that has reached epidemic proportions is a symptom of greater systemic needs within education as a whole and significantly threatens students' ability to learn (9).  

The benefits of experiential education and social emotional learning (SEL) have been heralded as significantly improving student well-being, school climate and improving academics by 11 points (10). Students often miss school for reasons outside of teachers’ control, but schools can influence factors such as school climate and social-emotional learning that are linked to chronic absenteeism (11). Principals recognize this need and 95% have committed to cultivating SEL skills in their students, however only 25% of schools have been able to do so (12). Teachers are also requesting support on their own as one of their biggest requests to lawmakers are mandates requiring social-emotional learning (12).  When researchers have studied “ridiculously amazing schools,” where students had high achievement and a high sense of wellbeing, and found the most dominant characteristic in those schools was a sense of trust, belonging and significance among their staff (13).  Principals and teachers have identified four significant barriers to their success: (1) lack of time for planning and implementation; (2) lack of knowledge on how to facilitate; (3) lack of resources that are aligned with their SEL and teaching standards; and (4) lack of assessment tools (12). 

References.  

1. Stiglic N, Viner, R.M. (2019). Effects of screentime on the health and well-being of children and adolescents: a systematic review of reviews. BMJ Open 9:023191. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023191

2. Karcher, N.R., Barch, D.M. (2021). The ABCD study: understanding the development of risk for mental and physical health outcomes. Neuropsychopharmacol. 46, 131–142. https://doi-org.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/10.1038/s41386-020-0736-6

3. State of Mental Health in America Report. Mental Health America, Inc.

4. 3X -  Gordon, G. (2010). “The Other Outcome: Student Hope, Engagement, Wellbeing.”

5. Data Matters: Using Chronic Absence to Accelerate Action for Student Success, by Hedy N. Chang, Lauren Bauer and Vaughan Byrnes, September 2018. *Revised Dec 2018.

6. Henry, G. T., Redding, C. (2018). The consequences of leaving school early: The effects of within-year and end-of-year teacher turnover. American Educational Research Journal, 48, 303-333.

7. 2017 Educator Quality of Work Life Survey. American Federation of Teachers and BATs. Retrieved from https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d30f5468f2df10001eae004/t/5ddf2dba305b2260c9763c15/1574907324698/2017_eqwl_survey_web.pdf.

8. Walker, S. (2020, July 01). Teachers are Living in a Tinderbox of Stressful Conditions. These Scientific Approaches Can Help. - EdSurge News. Retrieved January 21, 2021, from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2...

9. Garcia, E. & Weiss, E. (2019, April 16). U.S. schools struggle to hire and retain teachers: The Second Report in ‘The Perfect Storm in the Teacher Labor Market’ series. Retrieved fromhttps://www.epi.org/publication/u-s-schools-struggle-to-hire-and-retain-teachers-the-second-report-in-the-perfect-storm-in-the-teacher-labor-market-series/

10. Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D. & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1): 405–432. 

11. Chang, H. N., Bauer, L., & Byrnes, V. (2018). Data Matters: Using Chronic Absence to Accelerate Action for Student Success. Executive Summary. Attendance Works.

12. (2019). Safety and Social-Emotional Learning: Results of a National Survey. Education Week Research Center. Retrieved from https://epe.brightspotcdn.com/65/30/761a98ea490a90b8bcac85bf7724/safety-and-sel-national-survey-education-week-research-center-2019.pdf

The current Kikori product is a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform, available on iOS and Android, that allows educators to discover experiential education activities aligned with SEL standards and 21st Century Skills. Each activity on the platform includes instructions and focused reflection questions that guide teachers on through the experiential learning cycle. The Kikori platform currently has 600+ activities from 60 different creators, (many of which come from published books). The platform provides educators with the added benefits of being able to filter for activities based on age, outcomes, time, materials, and location (in person, virtual, outdoors). Further, educators are able to favorite activities and organize them into playlists where they can create sequences.  Both the activities and playlists can be shared among users.

With Kikori as a tool at teachers’ fingertips, they will be able to transform their classrooms and provide students the high-quality education necessary to succeed inside and outside the classroom. Note, this is not a platform for students to interact with directly, but rather a tool for their teachers to discover, organize, create and share activities, as well as build their teaching skills.

Our target population includes students and educators within public schools in the United States, which measures 130,000 schools, 3.3 million teachers and 50.7 million students. Students are facing mental health needs from stress, bullying and violence in unprecedented levels. Over two million youth are currently diagnosed with depression, and suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for teens. For children ages 2-8, 1 in 6 children have been diagnosed with a mental, behavioral or developmental disorder. All of this disproportionately affects our most vulnerable youth - and has been magnified by COVID.

Research suggests that approximately 20% of all children and adolescents in the United States have a diagnosable mental health disorder, at an annual cost of $247 billion (Institute of Medicine & National Research Council 2009). At the same time, however, research also shows that 75–80% of young people who need behavioral health services do not receive them (Kataoka et al. 2002).

A primary driver of this gap between need and help is that public child-serving systems disproportionately allocate their scarce resources to youth with the most serious and complex problems, reducing opportunities to invest in prevention and early identification and treatment. Approximately 10% of youth with the most serious and complex behavioral health needs consume 40–70% of all child-serving resources (Bruns et al. 2010; Center for Health Care Strategies 2011; Pires et al. 2013).

Kikori will address this need by providing its platform and professional development services to educators across the country, thus promoting prevention efforts rather than reactivity.

My team and I represent those who we are serving through our personal identities, backgrounds and locations. Each one of us attended public schools and have personally experienced difficulties with familial mental health needs, poverty and discrimination, both racial and religious. We live in states across the United States including Connecticut, Florida, New Hampshire, New York and Wisconsin - as well as Costa Rica. Our Advisory Board further represents Argentina, California, Maine, Mexico and Washington.

Examples of our work within the communities where we live includes leading adventure programming with First Nations youth, graduate student hikes and hosting experiential culinary experiences for educators. Kikori is collaborating with Dartmouth's Mental Health grant to support schools in six rural New Hampshire counties this summer, through experiential Social Emotional Learning summer institutes for educators and year-long eSEL curriculum. The Creators on our platform further exemplify our relationships with communities, including Dr. Marty K. Casey who is leading programming with the support of Kikori in seven St. Louis schools.  Within each of our schools and experiential education programs, we work together closely with the educators and facilitators to build meaningful "play"lists of activities for their programs.  Our user feedback guides the development of new app features and applications.

Personally working as a School Social Worker, I was often told the work that I did must be very difficult.  The reality was very different.  I had the best job in the entire world.  When I brought my students into my office - individually or in small groups, I got to see the most incredible, smart, funny, kind students in the world.  The classroom was often a place where these students didn’t feel safe or connected - and this brought out some serious fight or flight.

The reason I built Kikori was so that the entire world could see the students I got to see in my small office.  And so that those students COULD feel safe and connected in their classrooms - and bring their gifts to the world.  By using experiential, social emotional learning activities, students build self-awareness, self-confidence and empathy.  These activities improve the sense of community in classrooms and help students find their special strengths.  On top of this, by leveraging technology, we can create space for ALL educators to have a say in what types of activities are being played in schools. We are able to connect schools and incredible experiential education and nature organizations in their communities. And we are able to measure the impact of these activities and decisively say that social emotional learning is critical to academic learning - or even more importantly, that academic learning isn’t everything.

The following barriers are areas that we hope Solve can help us to overcome:

Financial:  Being a part of MIT Solve would provide us with opportunities that we could only dream of.  My ultimate dream, as I mention later, would be to partner with Daniel Lubetzky's Empatico program so as to support the connections they are building globally among classrooms - with impactful experiential, Social Emotional Learning activities. The MIT Solve platform would provide us with incredible opportunities and RESPONSIBILITY, to catalyze these partnerships and relationships, potentially leading to the Kikori platform being purchased so as to be provided to educators for free globally.

Technical: We know the power of experiential, Social Emotional Learning and seek to gamify the platform so that each educator on the platform is having their own meaningful experience! We are seeking to build a Custom Curriculum Generator to further meet the needs of participants. We would like to build out a Classroom Tool that supports educators in real-time through facilitation tips and support. We have so many ideas, and would be thrilled to receive technological support and know-how to ensure the platform is meeting the needs of participants - and truly growing community.

Legal:  We are seeking support with applying for patents, in regard to Intellectual Property and in building out collaborative contracts with partners.

Market:  We know the importance of evidence-based practices in the educational (and every!) industry. We seek the support of researchers on building out comprehensive research projects to study the feasibility and efficacy of the Kikori platform, professional development services and the parallel process between the two. 

Kikori is unique in the field in providing educators with dynamic, student- centered curriculum and a dashboard to track student’s progress and group development. Second, Many EdTech curricular aggregates, such as Seesaw, Outschool and Teachers Pay Teachers provide educators with easy-to-search multidisciplinary curriculum, however they don’t use experiential methodology in their lessons and don’t provide teachers with training on how to effectively teach their lessons to support all students’ learning styles. Within the Kikori platform, we have addressed the creation of an easy-to-use database that allows teachers to search for experiential education activities by age, outcome, or materials. Kikori is currently planning to build in Professional Development aligned with instruction. Finally, Playmeo and Training Wheels are two platforms in the market that offer team building activities and training on a digital platform, however their activities are not aligned with SEL and teaching standards, thus creating more work for educators. Kikori is unique in that our professional staff align SEL activities with teaching standards and remove that burden from teachers, making it easier for them to integrate these activities into their daily curriculum. 

1. 20M students reached globally through the Kikori platform, who connect with themselves, others and the planet through Kikori's experiential, SEL activities

2. 1M educators using Kikori on a daily/weekly basis globally, who a) feel confident leading experiential, SEL activities; b) feel a better sense of connections and trust with their colleagues; and c) create a positive sense of community within their classrooms

3. 10,000 Creators on Kikori - ultimately providing other educators with activities aligned with all Social Emotional Learning Standards, 21st Century Skill Standards, Sustainable Development Goals, Common Core Standards, Next Generation Science Standards and IB Standards.

Our scaling efforts include growth in six different regions of the world, participants from all the major religions, 15+ languages, and representation of participants from indigenous, marginalized and oppressed groups, children and adults with disabilities, refugees, and internally displaced people. 

In five years, Kikori will be the go-to experiential, social emotional learning hub for educators, facilitators, parents and counselors. There are four core components to the Kikori Vision: 

1 - Platform: Kikori will provide educators, counselors and parents with thousands of team building activities that are aligned with standards including those we currently have (Social Emotional Learning standards, 21st Century skills, Sustainable Development Goals) along with Common Core, Next Generation Science Standards and International Baccalaureate standards.  Creators will include variations to activities that are place-based and culturally relevant.  

2 - Training & Services Platform:  Kikori will develop a comprehensive Professional Development Platform aligned PD to the Danielson Framework for Teaching (FFT), the most frequently used teacher evaluation. This  will help educators find individualized training resources, and the accompanying dashboard will provide printable teacher evaluation portfolios.

3 - Map and Calendar: Kikori will be the experiential, social emotional learning hub for educators, facilitators, parents and counselors. We will develop the Community Connection Map and Calendar so that schools are able to find local organizations offering experiential and nature-based programming, as well as events for youth and families, and local workshops. In this way, we can be a liaison to connect organizations offering in-person training, while being the technological platform where their activities are stored. By fostering these relationships, we believe that schools may be more likely to take advantage of local programming that not only supports teachers in the classroom but also encourages getting outside the classroom into natural surroundings. 

4 - Impact Assessment:  Kikori will provide educators with impact assessment that measures student’s resiliencies, their learning and school engagement, and their relationships using the Holistic Student Assessment (HSA). This instrument has been chosen as it is applicable for students in grades 3-12, focuses on the whole child and is a holistic representation of that which we believe is most important to measure: 1) active engagement (engaging the world physically); 2) assertiveness (expressing voice and choice); 3) belonging (social connection and relationships); and 4) reflection (thought and meaning-making). By identifying areas of strength and need, a Personalized Curriculum Generator will provide educators with activities that help their students build the skills they are lacking aligned with their group developmental needs. By combining real-time needs assessment into the platform, each curriculum will adapt to and progress with their classroom’s group development needs and social emotional abilities and then track this information for teachers in a dashboard. This will allow teachers to visually track their students’ growth as well as providing them with recommended follow-up activities.

12 Month Milestones:

- Raise $800k Seed Round, which will last us until July 2023

- Continue seeding and growing districts through paid pilots (5-10 school districts)

- Increase Referral partners (10 partners referring to 20 enterprise sales)

- Double Facebook followers to at least 10,000 (SEL calendar, National Days, Printables)

- Website traffic 20k/week / SEO ranking to top 5 based on SEO analysis

- Newsletter subscribers to 20K

- Present and Exhibit at Key Conferences or Events (ASU+GSV, ISTE, NAESP, Innovative School Summit, AEE, ACA, ACCT, AORE)

- Brand Ambassador Program (100), Kikori Loyalty Program, Referral Program (40)

- Five B2B Case Studies, 20 Testimonials, Reference Clients (75%)

- Engage VIP content creators (bi-monthly) share outs (180k reach)

- Featured on blogs & podcasts (Edweek, Edutopia, Ed Tech Review, Uplift)

- Further Social Mission Marketing and Impact

- BHAG #1: Participate in Department of Education Small Business Innovation Research Program

- BHAG #2: Partner with Kind Foundation and Empatico (Daniel Lubetsky), along with our current partner, Play for Peace, to connect schools internationally and build empathy through play.

We plan to achieve this through our current sales accounts with
opportunities to scale (Big Brothers Big Sisters in Chicago, Camp
Manito-wish YMCA Camp, the Chill Foundation who is Burton Board's
foundation, the Aspire Incubator and Lerner Foundation); social mission
partners (Play for Peace, with 5,000 facilitators in 21 countries,
Outward Bound Adventure - training over 60 BIPOC individuals);
continuing to collaborate with industry leaders (we are currently
discussing a partnership with Better Lessons, to bring Kikori strategies
to their educators).  My dream would be to partner with Empatico, Kind
Bar Founder, Daniel Lubetzky's company to utilize Kikori activities
within their global connection-building platform.

Primary Predictors. The primary predictors will be the quantity and quality of experiential education activities led by teachers over a full school year. Control group activities will be observed, defined and organized into different methodologies such as deductive lessons, collaborative structures, centers, and whole group activities. Within the experimental group, there will be a minimum amount of 10 activities required for teachers (morning meeting activity + one activity that is aligned with teaching standards and fits into teachers’ daily academic lesson plan. The overall number of activities beyond the ten required will be tracked as this analysis could show whether more activities led to higher effect sizes . Within the experimental group, we will have a variable indicating how many activities a teacher did and then determine the effect of doing more activities. Following each activity, the teacher will complete a short evaluation that will measure whether each element of the activity was implemented with integrity in relation to the experiential learning cycle. A high-quality designation experiential education activities are defined as those that follow the experiential learning cycle (Kolb & Kolb, 2017) and will be approved through rigorous alignment and approval by experiential education experts (Dr. Michael Gass, Dr. Anita Tucker). The control group activities will be observed, defined and organized into methodology so as to have a truly defined comparison. The other primary predictors include school type (rural, suburban, urban), student background, and student SES.

Primary Outcomes. The dependent variables that I will measure will include four different student outcomes: (a) academic performance, (b) social emotional outcomes, (c) behavioral adjustment needs, (d) and emotional distress.

Academic outcomes will be measured by standardized test scores within reading and math, and wellbeing outcomes will be measured by a valid/reliable social emotional learning evaluation. Students’ individual grades and standardized test scores will be measured, and one area of analysis will focus on whether youth with lower classroom grades and scores improve following the implementation of more experiential education activities.

In regard to measuring social emotional outcomes, we will use the Holistic Student Assessment. The Holistic Student Assessment (HSA) is a digital student self-report instrument with 61 items. I have chosen this instrument as it is applicable for students in grades 3-12, focuses on the whole child, and covers areas that are specific to experiential education: 1) active engagement by engaging the world physically; 2) assertiveness as measured by expressing voice and choice; 3) belonging as measured by social connection and relationships; and 4) reflection as measured by thought and meaning-making.

Validity of assessment. A recent validation of the HSA used a sample of 5946 students in grades 5-12 from New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and Maine (Malti et al., 2017). According to the Rand Assessment tool, the HSA normative sample is based on a stratified random sample of 9,000 male and female participants ages 9-19 years of age from a population of N=27,808 respondents in geographic locations where the HSA is in active use (Allen, Thomas, Triggs & Noam, 2017). Congeneric reliability estimates based on latent variable models ranged from 0.68 to 0.89 (Allen et al., 2017). Omega coefficients were estimated for seven scales (Reflection, Trust, Optimism, Empathy, Assertiveness, Action Orientation and Emotion Control). Estimates ranged from 0.76 to 0.91 (Malti, Zuffiano & Noam, 2017). The items for the HSA were adapted from the Resiliency Inventory, a previously established instrument (Noam & Goldstein, 1998), and HSA scales correlate with measures of similar constructs on the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997) in the anticipated directions. Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor analyses were used to find evidence supporting subscales, and no evidence was found for measurement invariance by gender, grade or race/ethnicity (Allen et al., 017; Malti, Zuffianò, & Noam, 2017).

Behavioral adjustment needs will be identified as different types of behavior problems such as disruptive class behavior, noncompliance, aggression, bullying, school suspensions, and delinquent acts. These disciplinary referrals and will be measured by school records. Emotional distress measures are identified as internalized mental health issues and may include depression, anxiety, stress, or social withdrawal. These will be measured by student’s attendance, nurse visits and crisis interventions. This data will be drawn from school records.

The Kikori Access to Impact Project provides a systemic change in communities from countries currently scoring low on the Global Peace Index to increase peace through developing personal traits including compassion, leadership and hope. This builds interpersonal relationships across divides, and addresses underlying belief systems to strengthen communities.

Improved training and curriculum leads educators and facilitators to grow in their roles. Creating systems around program developmental stage plans streamlines activities and implementation. Common barriers are overcome through a mobile platform that supplies activities, rewards training efforts, and builds connections between educators and facilitators globally. We will use capacity-building models to support educators and facilitators with localized, culturally relevant Professional Development, along with the Kikori platform.

Intermediate goals add 250,000 new educators and facilitators each year following a scaling model, demonstrating that their students have improved their social emotional learning skills, utilizing research initiatives to measure impact. Within the Kikori activities themselves, a change model places learners that demonstrate motivational readiness into unique social environments with a focus on group consciousness, autonomy/individuality, conflict resolution, and reciprocity. Youth are given characteristic sets of problem-solving tasks through cooperative play activities, creating a state of adaptive dissonance and leading to experiences of mastery. Through this process, youth increase self- awareness, self-esteem, a sense of belonging, and problem-solving mindsets.

Educators experience the transformative and community-building power of
play through their team building with their colleagues and then have the
Kikori platform of activities at their fingertips.

Scaling activities lead to long-term goals of creating community-school networks by connecting local experiential education programs with schools, leveraging the Kikori platform to increase sustainability.  When experiential education and SEL programs support schools, they are able to add their activities onto the platform so teachers can easily continue weaving this content into their school day, rather than having it be a one-day memory.

The current Kikori product is a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform, available on iOS and Android, that allows educators to discover experiential education activities aligned with SEL standards and 21st Century Skills. Each activity on the platform includes instructions and focused reflection questions that guide teachers on through the experiential learning cycle. The Kikori platform currently has 350+ activities from 25 different creators, (many of which come from published books). The platform provides educators with the added benefits of being able to filter for activities based on age, outcomes, time, materials, and location (in person, virtual, outdoors). Further, educators are able to favorite activities and organize them into playlists where they can create sequences.  Both the activities and playlists can be shared among users.    

We are developing architecture that provides educators with the technological support so that anyone is able to successfully implement activities in their classroom and meet their students’ unique needs.  One of the key practices that facilitators do is real-time needs assessments based on how students present. Kikori will build this into their architecture by providing a real-time Needs Assessment following each activity. The Personalized Curriculum Generator will then recommend activities aligned with the group developmental needs, for example, moving from ice breakers to problem solving initiatives. By combining real-time needs assessment into the platform, each curriculum adapts to and progresses with their classroom’s group development needs and social emotional abilities and then tracks this information for teachers in a dashboard. This allows teachers to visually track their students’ growth as well as providing them with recommended follow-up activities, much as experiential facilitators would in person.    

we are continually developing curriculum that includes: alignment with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion principles; creating Universal Design for Learning (UDL) modifications for each activity beginning with providing Multiple Means of Action and Expression (Physical Action, Expression & Communication, Executive Functions); aligning with group development stages organized into weekly, sequenced playlists to integrate with the responsive instructional platform described below; and (4) filming 60-second explainer videos for each activity.    

We are also developing an online PD Platform, Teacher Needs Assessment and Personalized Training Generator; and a Community Connection tool that supports other place-based organizations in fostering school-community organization partnerships. Kikori will align PD to the Danielson Framework for Teaching (FFT), the most frequently used teacher evaluation. The Teacher Needs Assessment and Personalized Training Generator will help educators find individualized training resources, and the accompanying dashboard will provide printable teacher evaluation portfolios. Following testing the effectiveness our curriculum and PD, we will develop the Community Connection Map and Calendar so other local organizations can offer add-on in-person training to schools in their vicinity through the Kikori platform. By supporting place-based, culturally relevant practices rather than creating a one-size-fits-all approach, we not only support teachers in the classroom but also encourage getting outside the classroom into natural surroundings through fostering partnerships. In addition, we will align current activities with Common Core teaching standards. 

We incorporated Kikori as a Public Benefit Corporation and partook in the University of New Hampshire B Impact Clinic so as to build DEI values into the

Diversity, equity and inclusion are core to the Kikori team and all of our practices. I, Kendra Bostick, was trained in the University of Michigan's Social Work program, each course of which incorporated a focus on Privilege, Oppression, Diversity and Social Justice (PODS).

Community-driven platform: Our strongest belief is that educational practices should represent the values, beliefs and customs of those who are in the classroom. Because of this, we have developed a community-driven platform and encourage any educator, in the United States and abroad to submit activities for approval. Through our partnership with Play for Peace, we are dramatically expanding library of experiential, Social Emotional Learning from educators internationally. The goal of this work is to help students build positive, meaningful outlooks on other cultures - and see others through empathic, joyful eyes rather than growing up with divisiveness.

Kikori's Core Team: We are six women, one of whom is African American.

Kikori's Advisory Board, Accounting and Legal Counsel: Kikori's Advisory Board includes individuals or varying races, genders and sexual identities. On our Board, we have individual who are African American, Asian, LGBTQ, internationally-based (Mexico and Argentina), and including Spanish-speaking. Our Accountant is Asian, and our Legal Counsel is a female.

Core Partnership: Play for Peace is our core partner, and we hope to bring their activities focused on building compassion and community to students in classrooms across the United States.

DEI represented in our branding: Our Kikori characters and in-platform images represent a multitude of races, gender identities and ability levels. 

Platform Roadmap: We plan to build in features that provide accessibility of activities to all youth, despite differences.

KIKORI SOCIAL MISSION PROGRAM 

At Kikori, we believe that all children, youth and adults (children at heart!) deserve access to a high quality education where all feel the sense of safety that allows them to learn, think, dare, and thrive. We are committed to providing all communities, regardless of their means, with the opportunity to deliver experiential learning, proven to increase academic outcomes, strengthen a sense of belonging, and deepen relationships. That’s why we invest 10% of our licenses into registered non-profits and Title I public schools that would otherwise not be able to bring Kikori into their teaching/facilitation program. Our goal is to empower our partners to bring the power of play and connection to lift spirits and inspire dreams. 

For every 10 Kikori licenses purchased, 1 will be invested in our Social Mission Program. When we get to 25 licenses, we’ll invest up to 25 licenses in a Social Mission Partner.  Our program is designed to achieve success…defined by our Partners…so services are included to determine goals, provide training, and monitor progress. Here’s what’s included:

• 25 annual licenses renewable for as long as the partnership agreement is agreeable to both parties 

• Kikori Basic Services Package which includes:

  • Launch Plan co-created with our Partners to focus on their specific goals for social emotional learning

  • 45-minute Launch Training Workshop for 25 participants

  • 45-minute Post-Launch Check In after 4-6 weeks of use to answer questions, remove any obstacles to use, and to learn from each other!

  • 15-minute Mid-Year Check In to check progress toward goals and make necessary program changes.

  • 45-minute End-Year Meeting to determine if we met our goals and discuss next steps.

And, because we are committed to continuously improving our product based on client feedback, and also extending our Social Mission program as broadly as possible, we ask our Social Mission Partners to join us for a variety of collaboration sessions which include:

• 1 Case Study per Program Year

Every Kikori Partner’s journey toward an experiential learning practice provides lessons and insights for other schools and organizations going through similar change. We are building a library of Case Studies to share success stories and lessons learned. To write your case study, we will:

• Invite Partners to participate in three to five 45-minute interviews with our Marketing Department 

• Ask Partners to answer follow up questions as we write the case study and need clarification

• Review and sign off on the final Case Study, to be posted on Kikori’s website.

• 2 Product Feedback Sessions 

We are 150% devoted to our clients’ happiness. This means we need to know how our Partners are feeling about Kikori…what works well, what needs improvement, and what you’d like to see and do on the app that you can’t do now!  To hear what Partners are thinking, we will:

• Ask Partners to join us for two 45-minute product feedback sessions. These sessions will be conversations facilitated by our Product Development Team. Partner feedback will become a part of the feature and functionality set considered for future development. 

• User Testimonials 

We know that our clients’ Kikori experience can influence other clients to buy. The more licenses we sell, the more we can give away!  We will stay in close touch with our Social Mission Partners to make sure that we’re helping them to reach their goals. When we know we’ve reached our stated milestones, we’ll ask for testimonials…thoughts and reactions that we can share with our community and market…to highlight the important work that we’re doing together. 

Kikori’s Social Mission Partners are currently registered non-profits and Title I Schools. Our 2022 partners were selected organically, as we met organizations eager to introduce or expand their experiential learning practice, but didn’t have the resources to purchase Kikori. 

Kikori is honored to have invested 580 licenses, across three Social Mission Partners in 2022. We’d like to introduce them!

1. Play for Peace

Play for Peace develops compassionate leaders in areas of conflict around the world who connect people and communities to build lasting peace.

Play for Peace will use Kikori as its go-to portal for accessing, delivering, and creating experiential learning activities. 

1. Nelson Elementary School 

Nelson Elementary School is a Title I school in East Maine School District, in the suburbs of Chicago, serving more than 570 K-5th grade students. Nelson is dedicated to empowering all students to succeed in a changing world, and uses Second Step to incorporate social emotional learning into every day.  Now, they want to expand to include more team building and cooperative education.

Nelson Elementary’s Teachers will use Kikori to supplement their Second Step implementation and integrate more social emotional learning to their everyday practice, also build their adventure-based facilitation skills.

1. Outward Bound Adventures

Outward Bound Adventures (OBA) is the oldest non-profit in the nation created and dedicated to providing outdoor education, conservation and environmental learning expeditions for primarily low income, urban and rural youth and their families who would not otherwise have the opportunity to experience time spent in wild places and open spaces.

Outward Bound Adventures will use Kikori to organize and expand it’s library of experiential learning activities and to make sure that all activities are  easily accessible, “in the back pockets” of all OBA instructors.

Kikori is well positioned to take advantage of the EdTech (r)evolution. This (r)evolution is taking place in schools across the country whether the educational needs of their students are being met live/in-person, through a hybrid approach, or fully remote. Faculty, Staff, and Administrators have had to show their creativity and perseverance while moving away from the education delivery models we have all become accustomed to.  This EdTech (r)evolution is taking place in a market experiencing significant growth with the global Education Technology (EdTech) market size was valued at USD 76.4 billion in 2019 and it is projected to grow at a rate of 18.1% between 2020 and 2027. K-12 and higher education sectors have witnessed increased adoption of EdTech solutions, accounting for 42% of the EdTech market share in 2019.   

Kikori research suggests the most prudent go-to-market strategy is a freemium subscription model that includes a 4-pronged approach to revenue conversion:

• Institutional Sales
• Social Media Efforts
• Content Marketing
• Traditional Lead/Business Development (in line with core marketing activities) 

Kikori’s Sales Process will include a focused institutional sales effort, working with school district administrators and other decision makers across the education delivery spectrum -  District, Individual School, and Department Levels. Kikori’s reach and influence on social media continues to grow across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Leveraging this audience, in conjunction with the broader Kikori community allows us to create   an active, connected, and involved community through posts, sneak peaks/previews of features, webinars and other live events which all demonstrate the value of the Kikori platform and ultimately direct teachers and school administrators towards the app.   

In the past year Kikori has implemented a successful strategy for engaging institutions and generating institutional sales that will seamlessly transition to the Kikori School Product. Institutional leads are generated by a combination of referrals and active engagement and collaboration with organizations such as the Association for Experiential Education, National Association of Elementary School Principals, Association for Middle Level Education, National Association of Secondary Principals.  Since Kikori’s production launch on November 13, 2020, completed contracts have been secured with three discreet educational institutions and over seventy individual licenses have been sold.

My plan to become financially sustainable is through a combination of sustained donations and grants, selling products or services, and raising investment capital.

Sustained donations and grants: We currently have a donor who is supporting us through paying 50% for NGO's to bring on Kikori (future potential is supporting Boys and Girls Clubs).  This donor just supported our first YMCA camp coming on board as well as our partnership with the American Camp Association to bring Kikori to thousands of camps through our Camp Kindness Day collaboration with KindnessEvolution.

We previously completed the National Science Foundation I-Corps program at the University of New Hampshire. We have applied to the Department of Education SBIR grant, and plan to continue applying as well as to the National Science Foundation SBIR grant programs.

Selling products or services: We sold $12k in revenue in 2021. We have sold approximately $10k in revenue so far in 2022, and we just hired our Chief Revenue Officer in January, 2022.

We are beginning to build our our Creator revenue-sharing and referral program. We just signed a proposal, working together with Dr. Marty K. Casey who is working with seven middle and high schools in St. Louis (working with 50 of the highest needs students in each school). Dr. Marty is providing consulting services, has activities on the Kikori platform, and plans to bring Kikori to every school in St. Louis. We just signed another partnership deal with Suffolk Schools and Chef Malcolm J. Mitchell, a chef who is African American and bringing experiential, SEL culinary activities to schools. We are sharing 50% revenue with GenEd, an Indonesian company providing professional development with Kikori through our experiential learning professional development course.

Raising investment capital:  We have raised $330,000 as of March 15th and plan to complete our pre-seed round at $800,000 by July 30th. We are planning a $1M equity round for July, 2023.